Letter: Life isn’t ‘fair’ in the real world

Thursday, April 6, 2006 | 6:50 a.m.

The naivete of young people like letter writer Nick Lombardo ("Students getting the shaft in France," March 31) would be touching if it weren't so downright scary.

Mr. Lombardo apparently has made it through some college and seemingly does not yet know or understand that the United States is, for the most part, a "hire at will" economy.

What that means in terms of Mr. Lombardo's concerns is that in the United States, the majority of employees (age and educational status notwithstanding) can be fired for any reason, at any time, including that the boss doesn't like the way you dress or talk, without recourse, and without even the two-year limit proposed by the French government.

Mr. Lombardo should further understand (read, study) that bottom-line, greedy employers and a go-along government dissolved long-term working relationships between employer and employee long ago.

These days, any employment entered into by Mr. Lombardo, or anyone else for that matter, is tenuous at best and the benefits provided thereby are fewer and farther between. The sooner Mr. Lombardo and others like him divest themselves of the notion that life and work are somehow "fair," the sooner they will be able to learn how to function in the "real" world.

Jennifer Johnston Smith, Las Vegas